The Battle of the Somme (1916)
- Directed by
- Geoffrey H. Malins
- Genre
- documentary film, silent film, propaganda film
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Runtime
- 1h 14m
- Rating
- 6.5 of 10 from 21 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
This silent film shows the British army preparing for and fighting the early days of the Battle of the Somme. It includes footage of soldiers marching, firing artillery, and being treated for wounds, as well as scenes of the dead.
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What happens
The Battle of the Somme (US title, Kitchener's Great Army in the Battle of the Somme), is a 1916 British documentary and propaganda war film, shot by two official cinematographers, Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell. The film depicts the British Expeditionary Force during the preliminaries and early days of the Battle of the Somme (1 July – 18 November 1916). The film premièred in London on 10 August 1916 and was released generally on 21 August. The film shows trench warfare, marching infantry, artillery firing on German positions, British troops waiting to attack on 1 July, the treatment of wounded British and German soldiers, British and German dead and captured German equipment and positions. A scene during which British troops crouch in a ditch then "go over the top" was staged for the camera behind the lines. The film was a great success, watched by about 20 million people in Britain in the first six weeks of exhibition and distributed in eighteen countries. A second film, covering a later phase of the battle, was released in 1917 as The Battle of the Ancre and the Advance of the Tanks. In 1920, the film was preserved in the film archive of the Imperial War Museum. In 2005, it was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, digitally restored and was released on DVD in 2008. "The Battle of the Somme" is significant as an early example of film propaganda, a historical record of the battle and as a popular source of footage illustrating the First World War. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
More like this
The Somme (1927)
The Somme – From Defeat to Victory (2006)
It Is for England (1916)
With Our Heroes on the Somme (1917)
Britain Prepared (1915)
Australia Prepared (1916)
War-Torn Poland (1916)
The Victory Leaders (1919)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.